Typically, forms-based data collection systems, such as tax return preparation software, present a long list of questions (e.g., in the form of a series of user interface questionnaire screens or forms) to determine what information the user has and/or needs. Traditional forms-based data collection systems frequently ask every user every possible question regardless of whether or not the question actually applies to the user. Generally, forms-based data collection systems ask specific, often industry specific, questions regarding individual pieces of data. Thus, users are frequently confused into thinking they need the specific information instead of realizing that the information doesn't apply to a particular user's situation. For example, tax preparation software frequently asks questions regarding sometimes extremely complicated tax issues, often using esoteric terms (sometimes by necessity), that don't apply to an average individual. The questions asked by traditional tax preparation software generally are Yes/No type questions. For example, a program may ask various Yes/No questions in the form, “Do you have . . . ?”, over and over again until the user answers in the positive in regard to various types of documents or forms. Thus, when using traditional forms-based data collection system, a user may spend much time providing negative answers to questions that are irrelevant to the user's situation.
Some traditional document data collection systems may ask the user hundreds of questions to determine exactly what documents the user has and that need to be entered. Frequently the user must search through a collection of documents to locate and obtain every document the data collection system needs in order to enter the documents in the exact order the system requires. Generally the order of data entry is not intuitive to the user. For example, traditional tax return preparation software frequently uses the government developed tax return forms as a basis for the order in which it requires the user to enter data. As the government tax forms are frequently considered poorly organized and not user-friendly, this can result in tax return preparation software that is non-intuitive and not user-friendly as well.
Additionally, after answering all the questions presented by the data collection system and entering all the data required by the data collection system, a user may have documents “left over” from which the data collection system did not request any data. The user may therefore be confused and left wondering whether or not they answered all the questions correctly or had misinterpreted questions presented by the data collection system.